


Parental Instinct

by pickleplum



Series: Owl and Dragon [23]
Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Cute Kids, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-16
Updated: 2014-02-15
Packaged: 2018-01-12 14:41:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1188948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pickleplum/pseuds/pickleplum
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You wouldn't think so, but Hermann's actually good with kids.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Sparkles

Chuck Hansen’s day has been absolutely, positively horrible.

To start with, his supposed friend Mako succeeded in coating his hair with some sort of pink glitter that none of his efforts have budged in the least. The cherry on top of his shit sundae is he is due back at the Jaeger academy in less than an hour. His classmates will try to kick his ass if he shows up looking like this. It’s tough enough being the youngest and shortest student _and_ having a damn legend for a dad. So Chuck makes the executive decision to go AWOL until he can get the hair emergency sorted. 

Right.

Chuck looks for a quiet place to hide and miss the shuttle back across the island from the proving ground to the Academy. As he runs, he wishes, for the first and certainly not the last time, he could kick Mako’s ass. He darts down abandoned corridors, checking after each corner for pursuers. Chuck generally prefers to get in people’s faces when there’s a problem, but it doesn’t mean he can’t be sneaky when he needs to be. 

He finally picks a door at random after going at least five minutes without seeing another human being and slips inside. After waiting a few moments for his eyes to adjust to the dark, he examines the space and comes to the conclusion he’s found a small classroom. One wall is completely covered with—what were they called again?—blackboards.

Chuck dives behind the biggest desk in the room as a door opens in the opposite wall, spilling light across the floor. He can’t get a good look at the guy who walks in, but sees and hears enough to know his steps are slow and uneven. Not a Ranger, then.

“Excuse me? May I help you?” the man calls in a no-nonsense, British-accented voice while looking directly at Chuck’s hiding place. The newcomer flips on the lights.

How the hell did he see me in the dark? Chuck wonders. Still, Chuck needs this guy on his side, so he goes for polite. He stands up and does his best to look apologetic. “Sorry for barging in, sir,” he says, “I was … .”

“Looking for a place to hide?” The man’s voice has changed quite a bit. He sounds friendly now and maybe a little amused. “Well, I certainly can understand why, cadet,” he says. “You can’t rejoin your comrades in your current state.”

Chuck searches the man’s words for sarcasm and finds none. If he wasn’t so suspicious, he’d swear the guy sounds like he understands what he’s feeling. It’s confusing as hell. Adults definitely don’t understand Chuck and they’re almost never friendly to him.

The man sees Chuck’s confusion and explains, “I have an older sister and suffered a similarly sparkly indignity several times.” He gives Chuck a sympathetic smile. “I may be able to undo the damage if you’re willing to let me try.”

“Really?” Chuck’s traitorous voice cracks with hope and he scowls at himself.

“Really,” the man affirms. “There’s a sink in the next room that will serve our purposes, if you’d care to step this way.” He gestures toward the door through which he entered the room. Chuck goes.

The room turns out to be a small kitchen. The man tells Chuck to take a seat, excuses himself, and steps out another door. He returns a few minutes later with a pair of bottles and a couple of bath towels. Chuck gives the guy credit for how easily he carries the unwieldy while relying on a cane to walk.

“Oh. I’ve been terribly rude,” the man says. “I’m Doctor Gottlieb. You are … ?”

“Chuck Hansen.”

“I’m pleased to make your acquaintance, Cadet Hansen.” Hermann offers his hand and Chucks shakes it. “This stuff smells terrible,” Hermann says as he picks up one of the bottles, “but it will loosen the glitter’s hold. Then we’ll use shampoo to get rid of it and the smell.” Chuck understands and nods. “Let’s get started, then.”

Hermann wets Chuck’s hair at the sink and then … massages in the bad-smelling gel, carefully coating all of Chuck’s short hair. It surprises Chuck how gentle the man is and how good it feels. It kind of reminds him of how his mum used to wash his hair when he was tiny. But he’s not going to think about that.

“We have to leave that in place for a while to loosen the adhesive,” Hermann says.

Chuck studies his potential savior and decides he needs to know more about him. “You’re not a soldier or an academy teacher or a regular tech. What do you do here?” he asks.

“Beside rescuing cadets from pranks, you mean?” Hermann responds with a smile. “I’m in charge of the Kaiju Science division’s physics section. I also help the J-Tech software developers with coding.”

A memory finally clicks into place in Chuck’s brain. “ _You’re_ the Doctor Gottlieb who wrote the Mark I OS!” His face falls. “So you’ve worked with my old man.”

Hermann nods.

“Why haven’t you mentioned him yet?”

The man looks genuinely confused. “Why _would_ I mention him? The only Hansen I’m interested in right now is you. Your father has no place in our conversation unless you want to give him one.”

“Oh,” Chuck says while he tries to process Hermann’s statement. He can think of nothing further to say so they sit in relatively easy silence, Hermann scribbling something on a scrap of paper. Chuck, meanwhile, tries to get over how weird his interaction with the doctor has been. He’s not acting like any of the other adults Chuck has dealt with lately and it’s throwing the boy off.

A few minutes pass and Hermann runs his hand over Chuck’s hair and pulls back a palm covered in sparkles. “I believe the gel has done its job. Over to the sink for a rinse, Cadet Hansen.”

Rinse. Shampoo. Rinse. Chuck relaxes again under the gentle touch, watching the glitter swirl down the drain, but since he has his pride insists on toweling his hair dry himself.

“Let’s get a look at you.” Hermann studies Chuck from multiple angles. “Yes, you look like a proper Academy student again. If I’m not mistaken, you still have enough time to catch the shuttle to the dorms if you run.”

Chuck glances at his watch and goggles. “R-right. Thanks, Doctor.”

“Go on! Run! You don’t want to be stuck on this base with whomever did that to you, do you?”

“ _No_ , _sir_!” Chuck spins and sprints the way he originally came.

His old man said Doctor Gottlieb was a real pain in the arse, stuck up and a know-it-all, but the guy seems nice enough to Chuck. And he treated Chuck like his own man, which is worth a hell of a lot more than his dad’s opinion any day.


	2. Azalea

Mako Mori closes her eyes and smiles as Hermann gently cards more of her hair into his hand and twists it into a braid with his long, nimble fingers while she sits in his desk chair in his quarters. She may not be looking forward to the boring official dinner party _Sensei_ invited her to attend that evening, but having a new hairstyle to go with her best green dress allows her to face the prospect with something that could pass for enthusiasm.

She has only lived with _Sensei_ for a year, but she trusts his judgement implicitly. So if _Sensei_ says the nervous mathematician will do a good job braiding her hair, she will let him do so even though she harbors serious doubts about the fashion sense of a young man who dresses in old-fashioned, battered clothes.

When he finishes his work and secures the braid with an elastic hair tie, Mako feels a bit nervous. What if she looks silly in front of all of those important people? Her fear evaporates when Hermann leads her to the bathroom and passes her a small mirror and helps her align it so she can examine her hair in the larger mirror over the sink. Her hair has been swept up into a simple, elegant, perfect French Braid. 

“Is there anything you would like me to change, Miss Mori?” Hermann asks quietly. She vehemently shakes her head ‘no’.

“It is perfect,” she says, a little awed.

“Do you have a pretty clip or pin to hold your hair?” he asks. She responds in the negative. “Well, if you’re going to a fancy party, you’ll need one. Let’s see if I can find something around here that will suit.”

He thinks for a moment and retrieves a stack of origami paper from a drawer of his desk. Mako follows chooses a rich royal blue when he prompts her to pick the color that will look best with her dress. He nods, takes the paper from her fingers, and neatly creates an origami flower. “An azalea,” he says as she examines it. He holds it over the hair tie and studies its effect. “It still needs something,” he mumbles. “It’s not lovely enough for you.” Mako blushes.

Hermann excuses himself and steps into the bathroom and closes the door behind himself. Mako hears him rummaging about for a bit before he returns clutching a small spray of coppery feathers.

“How does the color of these look with your dress and the flower?” he asks.

“Beautiful,” she answers. Hermann smiles and arranges the feathers in a neat fan which he glues to the back of the paper flower. “Gottlieb- _hakase_ , why do you have feathers in your bathroom?” Mako asks shyly.

“Ah,” he says, looking a bit sheepish. “These are … a bit of a good luck charm. I stored them in the cabinet for safekeeping.” Mako gapes at him and he smiles back kindly. “Don’t worry. These aren’t all I have. I can afford to share them with you.”

He rummages in another drawer and removes a needle and spool of thread. He bites off a short length and threads the needle. “There,” he says as he tacks the ornament to the hair tie. “No other lady at the party will be wearing one of these.”

Mako grins and runs back to the bathroom to check her appearance. Between the braid and the new decoration, she feels like a young lady for the first time in a long while.

“ _Domo arigatou gozaimasu_ ,” she says, bowing deeply.

Hermann returns the bow and says, “You’re welcome, Miss Mori. Now, I believe the Marshal is waiting for you upstairs.”

Mako bows again, smiles, and walks out, finally looking forward to the party.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Blame sherriaisling for reminding me of the idea of crafting with Hermann’s feathers.


	3. Homework

When Newt strolls back into the lab after his latest ‘chat’ with Marshal Xiong, Hermann is nowhere in sight. Someone, though, is giggling. Giggling like a small girl, in fact.

Newt mentally analyzes the tonal qualities of the giggle and decides a small girl really is the probable source. But what the heck is a small girl doing in the K-Science lab? 

He follows the sound to the farthest corner of Hermann’s side of the room. 

Hermann sits elbow-to-elbow with a little girl with jet black hair at a table on which rests what look like a textbook and an old-fashioned spiral-bound notebook. She scratches across the paper with a pencil, apparently describing the steps she’s taking to solve some sort of math problem in Cantonese, a language Newt has yet to get the hang of. As she comes to a stop, Hermann points to one of her marks and offers what sounds like a gentle correction in her language. The girl scrunches up her face, but breaks into a wide grin when Hermann asks her a question. She feverishly erases and pencils in a new number while Hermann nods in approval. Grinning from ear to ear she begins work on the next exercise. 

The girl’s chatter stops when she notices Newt and she begins studying her pencil intently. Hermann glances up and immediately susses the problem. “Ah, Miss Xiong,” he says, “You haven’t met Doctor Geiszler before. Miss Xiong Fei Yen, meet Doctor Newton Geiszler.” The girl looks at Newt shyly and bows her head in acknowledgement of him. He offers a cheery wave and she smiles. “Doctor Geiszler and I share this workspace and he will most likely be the death of me someday.”

“Oh, sure, Hermann, poison her against me right away,” Newt whines in frustration.

“I am merely stating a fact. Now, if you’ll excuse us, Newton, Miss Xiong and I have work to do,” Hermann says in a tone that clearly indicates the matter is closed. For once, Newt lets it drop at that. No need to scare the kid by starting a shouting match.

Newt immerses himself in work as close as he’s allowed to the tutoring session so he can keep half an ear on Hermann and Fei Yen. After a few minutes, he hears the girl laughs at something Hermann says. Did he just tell a joke? Newt wonders. He’s capable of telling jokes? His brain doesn’t break if it encounters humor?

All three of them work quietly and productively until Marshal Xiong walks into the lab. Newt ducks behind a convenient sample tank that allows him to maintain a decent view of Hermann’s side of the lab. Fei Yen runs to the Marshal babbling happily and showing off her notebook. The Marshal smiles, says something that sounds encouraging, and hugs the girl. 

Hermann limps over to the pair and speaks briefly with the Marshal in Cantonese. Newt kicks hims a little for not learning the language. He catches a ‘thank you’ from the Marshal and ‘you’re welcome’ from Hermann before the mathematician stoops to accept a hug from Fei Yen. With that, the little girl takes the Marshal’s hand and they leave, Fei Yen talking excitedly and pulling the woman along.

Newt steps out from his hiding place and asks Hermann, “She’s the Marshal’s daughter?” Hermann nods. “You’re tutoring the Marshal’s daughter?”

“Miss Xiong is having difficulties with her mathematics homework. The Marshal asked for my assistance.”

“That was downright sweet of you, helping her out like that. I never expected you to be good with kids.” Newt leans against the doorframe and crosses his arms. “You act almost like a normal person around them. Maybe I should find some more spawnlings around here to babysit. Might improve your mood permanently.”

Hermann turns on his heel and stalks back to his work. Newt hears him sigh and watches his hand move to the spot in the center of his chest that he tends to touch when he gets upset. Idly wondering what set Hermann off this time, Newt heads to his computer to type up his notes.

“Perhaps you should, Newton. I already mind you all day, how much more work could another child be?” Hermann tosses his way as Newt pulls out his chair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Expands on the “2023” subsection of “Normal”.
> 
> Ah, my OC Hong Kong Marshal reappears in her third fic and third different _PR_ universe.

**Author's Note:**

> Music to set the mood: [Kristin Hersh, _Strange Angels_ , “Shake”](http://youtu.be/47eZPyNyEoQ)


End file.
